Tool Chest Configuration?

[bpankratz]

Hey guys I am looking for a new tool box setup as mine is getting too small, I am just wondering what you guys prefer as far as your setup goes. Some people have only a bottom chest, while others have bottom and top, and then there are the top peices which have a workbench in them as well(not sure what you call them.)

What is your preference and why?

 

[d.mcfarland]

Nobody can tell you what works best for you. It all depends on how, when, and why you are going to be using it. Give us some details to work with to help you out!

 

[jjjrmx5]

If in a small work area with a workbench or work table, I like my boxes to go to the ceiling or stack as tall as possible to save space. The box only acts as tool storage. Not as work surface.

Hell, I even use a step stool to get into one top box.
Small footprrint that way and saves precious real estate.
And small footprint means more room for tools if going tall or more room to work in and around if small. Win-win.

If a big shop, if you have several local work benches/tables strategically placed, then small bottom or small stacked roll cab , and go as you can. (40/44" tends to be my max for that) That's where a service cart is also helpful.

Large shop and need to move around ALOT and work at it to do heavy tasks, then bigger roll cab with work surface and vice and it becomes both box and work surface.

Again, it's all a matter of how your workspace is designed and the work surfaces available as well as how often your box or equipment needs to be moved or is even just a temp. work area in itself.

Lots of variables.
No easy answers.

Good luck.

 

[nimbleVagrant]

My first "professional" grade box was 56" wide roll cab. When I ran out of space I thought about trading up to something even wider and maybe a little deeper, but the way my workplace is laid out it just wouldn't have been practical.

So I ended up getting the matching top chest. It nearly doubled my capacity, without taking up anymore floor space. A couple years later I added a side locker with slide-out shelves -now that holds nearly all my cased junk. It's been 4 years since my last add-on and I've still got room to spare.

Only thing I regret is not having at least 1 additional full length drawer on my roll cab. About the only thing left that I could add would be another locker on the other side, which may happen someday. The only stuff I need to buy nowdays is speciality tools that usually come in blow-molded cases.

My box stays in one spot and I work out of a cart that holds my basic, go-to tools as move from one bay to another and sometimes out into the parking lot.

Some people like hutches on their cabs, I never had a need for one.

 

[bpankratz]

What you guys are saying really makes sense to me, I think what I MIGHT end up doing is getting a couple of long cabinets, without tops and using them both as a workbench and tool storage, right now I am just in my garage, which is limited for space, but I will soon have a bigger shop and I need to plan around that. Do you guys feel that there is a size that is TOO big? like to the point of where it is really hard to move around even if you have the space?

 

[jjjrmx5]

So I ended up getting the matching top chest. It nearly doubled my capacity, without taking up anymore floor space. A couple years later I added a side locker with slide-out shelves -now that holds nearly all my cased junk. It's been 4 years since my last add-on and I've still got room to spare.

I'm gonna guess that you did not read or understand the OP's question re: tool storage vs work surface/work bench.

If you need a portable work surface that MUST be your tool box, then a top box is not an option. Duh.

Unless a hutch and side box/ side cab. Which is really 56" and up territory.

But once over 40/41/44", then portability gets complicated if a big box.

Again. It's complicated.

Sometimes buying more than one roll cab solves the solution. Big roll cab with top box and modifed roll cart with work surface works for some.

No simple solution w/o details.

Sorry.

You need a work surface and need to store an ever growing set of tools.
How many tools along with how many you need to move and how often dictates how your system works and what you buy.

It's as complicated as the 5-S system.

Trust me.

LOL.

 

[Outlawmws]

My preference and goal is bottom roller(s) only or a combinations bottom rollers with fixed bottoms on a workbench arrangement. As it turns out, I have more tops than bottoms, however many of those tops are smaller Kennedy 3 and 7 drawer tops that I treat as carry boxes. My goal remains a goal, but soon I hope to have the shed finished soon, and more garage space to begin getting things in better order...

I'd like the main roller to have a small vise for when needed, but my main vice(s) will remain bench mounted and firmly anchored to the wall and likely a post mounted larger vise for real heavy abuse, if not a blacksmith's post vice in addition.

Ultimately I want to start taking the main roller to the project (Within the garage and in the drive), instead of traveling back and forth...

 

[thightower]

It is really up to you and the space you have to work with. I like to use just a bottom roller and use it for a bench. Stevvo has a nice set up, http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126086, which is another posibility. Others like it stacked to the ceiling with a bench.

 

[nti06]

Tool control foam works great for keeping everything together.

 

[2oolhound]

If you do a lot of heavy work like you need to bend a 5' length of 1" rebar or really wail on something with a 5 lb hammer a roller cabinet turned work bench probably won't cut it for you. If you already have a sturdy workbench to do those heavier jobs OR if you likely won't ever need to do anything that heavy then the roller cabinet with a work surface is a great set up. Rebuild a transmission, cylinder head, carb or your chainsaw, perfect, but not the real heavy stuff. I think of the roller cabinet with work surface top as counter tops and would mount a small vice on one too. You can never have enough flat spots to work on things in a shop. A lot of guys have a solid workbench that their roller cabinet rolls under so they have the best of both worlds.

 

[jjjrmx5]

If you already have a sturdy workbench to do those heavier jobs OR if you likely won't ever need to do anything that heavy then the roller cabinet with a work surface is a great set up. Rebuild a transmission, cylinder head, carb or your chainsaw, perfect, but not the real heavy stuff.

LOLOLOL.

Reminds me of when a new assembly floor worker here took the armored door (with the help of a co-worker) off an up-armored HummVeee (HMMV) and proceded to lay it flat on top of one of the cheap $69 Harbor Freight square tubed legged single drawer service carts thinking that it would support it. (yes. On top of the chrome tube loops that you use to push the cart around. Can you say "*******".

The cart held it steady for about 30 seconds and them buckled and folded like a pro poker player with a pair of 2's.

Loud crash and the cart totally Parallelogramed.

There were plenty of heavy duty work surfaces around, He just chose not to use them,

Again, needs for a home garage user, a pro garage or auto repair facility, a manufacturing facility and even doing maintainance professionally on a single or even multiple buildings all require different approaches to the OP's problem.

 

[RV77]

I have a KRL1023 "bench type" and a Hutch.Ive had vertical boxes with side boxes etc...But I got tired of having to put everything away at the end of the day so as to not "attract attention".

Now I can lock the bottom box then just put everything I was using on top close/lock the hutch and leave.

 

[SteveCh]

Hey guys I am looking for a new tool box setup as mine is getting too small, I am just wondering what you guys prefer as far as your setup goes. Some people have only a bottom chest, while others have bottom and top, and then there are the top peices which have a workbench in them as well(not sure what you call them.)

What is your preference and why?

My tool chest/boxes are stationary. They sit in one place and I might move them a couple feet a couple times a year to clean under them or find a bolt that fell on the floor. So, I have stacked sections, and the weight is not a problem. I have the sections because I don't want a really long base but at the same time I wanted a lot of different-sized drawers. This way I can choose each component and mix them up.

On the other hand, a good friend is an airplane mechanic and has a SnapOn chest that is at least six or seven feet long with a couple cabinets stuck on each end and the back. He welded up a heavy, angle-iron wheeled base for it to sit on, as the wheels it came with would not work. Of course, if he moves to a different shop, he needs a forklift to raise the thing up onto a flatbed truck.

So, depends. I prefer to be able to customize the drawer thing and he prefers a monster. Some of his mechanics have two or more smaller rolling chests more like mine. One guy has four smaller stacked sets of boxes....

 

[F-Bobby]

My Ideal set up would be a Large bottom box, A hutch with electrical outlets and lighting and a side cabinet (for the special tools and big kits)

 

[supra90turbo]

I really like my HF 41" box.

I added a side box almost immediately, and plan to add a top box before long. Vertical real estate is more available than horizontal, so up we go!

 

[shoturtle]

It depends on work area, tool types and personal preference.

 

[crewchief888]

personally i go vertical before i add on horizontally.

"back in the day" a 36" wide SO roller/chest combo was a HUGE toolbox, if you added a side box to that, it was a MONSTER.

i've never had a box any wider than 36".
i'll buy multiple smaller boxes before i'd invest in a double bay or wider box.

i did see a nice setup in a matco catalog a few years ago, 6s thriple bank, 1/2 hutch top, dual lockers black frame, orange drawers with chrome trim.

but i doubt everything would fit

 

[nimbleVagrant]

I'm gonna guess that you did not read or understand the OP's question re: tool storage vs work surface/work bench.

That wasn't his question.

He was asking about people's preferences and why. I gave my answer.